Herb Infused Oils - Oh Man!

NOTE: This was originally written 12/10/11  Ignore the posting date.

I was shopping yesterday in a kitchen gadget store for Christmas gifts. I like to check out the fancy food items in stores like that, things like jams, vineagers, mustards and oils. I saw Blood Orange Olive Oil. What could be bad about that? I bought all they had - 2. I really needed one more. So I got to thinking about making my own for that "one last person who reallly needed one." I grow many kinds of herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Wow, that would make great lyrics for a song! Anyway, my most favorite herb to grow is BASIL. I usually grow sweet, lemon and purple ruffles, but have been known to grow more. One summer I grew six different kinds, but there are approximately 100+ types.

Okay, back to flavored oils - when I got home from shopping, I was on the hunt for instructions for making my own herb infused oil. I went to Google and found many websites with instructions, recipes and warnings. WARNINGS? Yes, warnings. Who would have thought you would need a warning when it came to cooking with olive oil? Isn't olive oil the food of the gods? Yes, but it's man who can mess it up, especiallsy when it comes to botulism. The moisture content of the herbs or other things added to flavor the oil can be BAD. I've been reading about the dangers of garlic infused oil. "They" all recommend keeping the oil refrigerated and using within a few days. if the oil is made with fresh garlic and fresh herbs. I don't do much daily cooking anymore so that wouldn't work too well for me. I would have to make it 2 or 3 tablespoons at a time. I want to be able to store it unrefrigerated in the cabinet or on the countertop.

I got to wondering about using minced dehydrated garlic. Hmm? I'm still waiting for an answer from casaveneracion.com.  Also on this website, in the comment section, someone named Cheri (post dated 11/20/09) took a course at Williams-Sonoma and gives directions how to cook the oil to give it a 2 month shelf life. I'm going to try that. I want to give these oils for Christmas gifts along with some homemade bread.

Who knows? This might be so fun, so good that it will be an annual food gift item, like my beef jerky and Conway corn.

Look and Learn From My Mistake!

     My husband brought wood up to the house. "Hey, bring some inside and make a fire. It's a fire building kind of day." I thought, "Okay."  

     I put some crumpled newspaper in the wood stove, added some bark and small pieces of wood, then lit the paper. It took off pretty well, so I added 3 or 4 nice sized pieces. The wood was nice and dry so it took off right away. I sat in my recliner, enjoying the warm, orange glow coming from the stove's window.

     The fire got pretty hot pretty fast. I could smell that hot smell. You know what I mean, when the metal stove pipe gets so hot it has that "smell", like an empty cast iron skillet left on the burner? I thought, "I'd better put down the damper to slow down the fire." I looked up and noticed the plastic window fan was still sitting on top of the stove, leaning a little on the stove pipe. AAAAAAAA. I pulled it away from the pipe. Strings of plastic, like a cheese pizza, strung across. I pulled it and pulled it. It just kept coming in fine threads. It wouldn't stop. I had a wad of what looked like a ball of thread. There was a lovely melted grid of white plastic on the pipe. I tried to wipe it off to no avail. Whoa is me! Eventually it melted and dripped down into the connection of the pipe and stove. I guess it dripped inside that connection into the firebox. It's about gone from the stove pipe now.

     The fan had been sitting there all summer and, I guess, just became another fixture in the room. Well next summer it will be an art fixture in the room.

I wonder if it still works?

                    

NOTE:  The fan was checked on 12/9/11. It still works. Hurray?

I Don't Want To Be Left Out

I just found out I'm the only one who hasn't posted this picture. I wasn't clued in.

There. I feel better.

The Ultimate In Laziness (Or Ingenuity?)

Sometimes laziness gives birth to ingenuity. Here's my latest example:

     I found JUMBO marshmallows at the store the other day. Jumbo? Yup, and to top if off they are SWIRL! Regular marshmallow flavor AND CHOCOLATE!! How can that be a bad thing?  

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony,
side by side in my marshmallow, oh Lord, why don't we? 

     I've been hungry lately for roasted marshmallows, so when I saw these I HAD to have them. I didn't want to build a big ol' fire outside, and since my back has been bothering me lately I didn't want to stand at the stove, fork in hand.

Here's where laziness turned to ingenuity: 

Why not gather the necessary items and sit in the recliner in the livingroom and enjoy some TV and a gooey, melted marshmallow?

 

Let's see. What do you need?

1: Marshmallows - check!

2: A Fork - check!

 3: FIRE - check!

4: A Recliner - check!

5: A TV - check!  Judge Judy? Not required.

Also, not required are sweat socks on the table.

They have no affect on the final product.

Directions:

     Be sure your marshmallow is securly fastened to the fork. Believe me, cleaning molten marshmallow off the carpet is no fun. Don't question the wisdom of the blogger.

     Hold the marshmallow over the candle flame. As you can see, holding too far from the wick causes soot, rather than that lovely char.

     Get that marshmallow right down in the blue part of the flame and let the roasting commence. Just like any marshmallow roast, keep turning it to get roasted on all sides. Duh!

Mmmm! Goo!

     Get back in there and do it again. The great thing about these JUMBO marshmallows is that they can be roasted many times. That's one tall flame!

     Burn, baby, burn! That's so preeeetty.

Oooo, these are really good!

     After 4 of these, I was about sick. The rest of the bag is going to a bonfire and weenie roast tomorrow night.


     So, there you have it. Lazy doesn't always mean the brain is on hold. I wonder how Einstein would compare this to E=MC2. Hmm?

Couldn't resist leaving this picture on here.

Oh, The Paintstiks Are Fun!!

     Maggie was here a few weekends ago and helped me try out the Shiva Paintstiks. They are as nice as I had hoped. I definately need more experience. We were experimenting on cheap, thin muslin.

     I started out using a butterfly stencil, first as a rubbing (didn't work too well), then as a stencil. It was so awful, I threw it away. Nothing but a smear.

     So I looked around and found my daughters' old baby shoes to use as a rubbing. It sort of worked out. I think the problem here is that the shoe is old and curved on the bottom. I wanted to take off the wrapper and use the side of the paintstik, but thought better of that. Chaa-Ching.

     I've had this hummingbird stencil for quite a while, never using it. It worked great. I used Q-tips to get in the lines. The irridescent colors were great for the hummingbird.

     Maggie used freezer paper to make stencils. A picture can be drawn on the matte side of the freezer paper, then the design is cut out. Be sure to think "mirror image" when designing, cutting and painting your stencil. The new stencil is ironed, shiney side down on to fabric. It temporarily stays in place while the painting is done.

     Maggie did a good job with her dove and heart design stencil, but she really hit it when she made this mermaid stencil. We could already tell this was going to be good so I found some black cotton fabric for her to use. She saved the stencil for me to try it.

The hair might look a little odd due to a fold in the fabric. That will iron out.
 (And I'm still using my cell phone
to take pictures. She's gorgeous!)

     I made a stencil also. I really like it, but it doesn't compare to Miss Maggie's.

     Next we should try an Elvis stencil on velvet. HAHA. Seriously, wouldn't that be pretty cool?!

     The heat setting directions said to let the paint dry for 24 hours, or if the paint is applied especially heavy, let it dry for 3 to 5 days. Besides heat setting with an iron, it can also be heat set in your clothes dryer for 30 minutes. I wanted to set it with my iron, but I couldn't get it to work. (It's been dropped a few times so it's reliability is ify. It will work the previous time and the next time it won't heat at all. But then it might the next time. Do you suppose I need a new one? Oh, Saaantaaa!)  Our examples ended up drying for about 3 weeks, when I could finally get around to it AND the iron would heat up. I was a little disappointed with it. It seems the red & yellow paints bled oil into the fabric, even after 3 weeks. I don't think I/we applied the paint terribly heavy. Here's my spiral. Suppose it could be the cheap muslin, just too thin?

     Here's the center heart of Maggie's heart with doves stencil. I didn't show the birds. They were blue with the center of their bodies a little on the silver side. They didn't bleed any oil, but the red heart did.

     I noticed while heat setting Maggie's mermaid that I could smell the oil and could see just a little on the black, but not enough to show. The black was a much better fabric than the cheap muslin. Don't have it figured out yet.


     I found this scarf weight fabric and thought it would be beautiful with a little gold or bronze/copper paint added. I don't know exactly the fiber content. It was on the $1.99 table. At that price you can't go wrong experimenting. The store owner burned a little piece. It sort of melted, but some of the threads turned to ash. I will be washing, drying and ironing little pieces to see what happens before wasting any paint on it. Even without adding any paint I will still be making some scarves with it.

      Like I said at the beginning, I need to practice more. And will be. (As soon as I get some projects finished in the IMMEDIATE future - there's a grandbaby coming.)